The Mille Miglia (, ''Thousand Miles'') was an open-road,

motorsport Motorsport, motorsports or motor sport is a global term used to encompass the group of competitive sporting events which primarily involve the use of motorized vehicles. The terminology can also be used to describe forms of competition of two ...

endurance race established in 1927 by the young Counts Francesco Mazzotti and Aymo Maggi, which took place in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

twenty-four times from 1927 to 1957 (thirteen before

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, eleven from 1947). Like the older

Targa Florio The Targa Florio was a public road endurance automobile race held in the mountains of Sicily near the island's capital of Palermo. Founded in 1906, it was the oldest sports car racing event, part of the World Sportscar Championship between 1955 ...

and later the

Carrera Panamericana The Carrera Panamericana was a border-to-border sedan ( stock and touring and sports car) rally racing event on open roads in Mexico similar to the Mille Miglia and Targa Florio in Italy. Running for five consecutive years from 1950 to 1954, i ...

, the ''MM'' made

grand tourer A grand tourer (GT) is a type of car that is designed for high speed and long-distance driving, due to a combination of performance and luxury attributes. The most common format is a front-engine, rear-wheel-drive two-door coupé with either ...

s like

Alfa Romeo Alfa Romeo Automobiles S.p.A. () is an Italian luxury car manufacturer and a subsidiary of Stellantis. The company was founded on 24 June 1910, in Milan, Italy. "Alfa" is an acronym of its founding name, "Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili." ...

, BMW,

Ferrari Ferrari S.p.A. (; ) is an Italian luxury sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari (1898–1988) in 1939 from the Alfa Romeo racing division as ''Auto Avio Costruzioni'', the company built its first car in ...

Maserati Maserati S.p.A. () is an Italian luxury vehicle manufacturer. Established on 1 December 1914, in Bologna, Italy, the company's headquarters are now in Modena, and its emblem is a trident. The company has been owned by Stellantis since 2021. Ma ...

Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to as Mercedes and sometimes as Benz, is a German luxury and commercial vehicle automotive brand established in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a Mercedes-Benz Group subsidiary established in 2019) is headquartere ...

, and

Porsche Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, usually shortened to Porsche (; see #Pronunciation, below), is a German automobile manufacturer specializing in high-performance sports cars, SUVs and sedans, headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany ...

famous. The race brought out an estimated five million spectators. From 1953 until 1957, the Mille Miglia was also a round of the

World Sports Car Championship The World Sportscar Championship was the world series run for sports car racing by the FIA from 1953 to 1992. The championship evolved from a small collection of the most important sportscar, endurance, and road racing events in Europe and N ...

. Since 1977, the "Mille Miglia" has been reborn as a

regularity race A regularity rally, also called time-speed-distance or TSD rally, is a type of motorsport rally with the object of driving each segment of a course in a specified time at a specified average speed. The rally is usually conducted on public roads, ...

for

classic A classic is an outstanding example of a particular style; something of lasting worth or with a timeless quality; of the first or highest quality, class, or rank – something that exemplifies its class. The word can be an adjective (a ''c ...

and

vintage car A vintage car is, in the most general sense, an old automobile, and in the narrower senses of car enthusiasts and collectors, it is a car from the period of 1919 to 1930. Such enthusiasts have categorization schemes for ages of cars that en ...

s. Participation is limited to cars, produced no later than 1957, which had attended (or were registered to) the original race. The route (Brescia–Rome round trip) is similar to that of the original race, maintaining the point of departure/arrival in Viale Venezia in

Brescia Brescia (, locally ; lmo, link=no, label= Lombard, Brèsa ; lat, Brixia; vec, Bressa) is a city and ''comune'' in the region of Lombardy, Northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Garda and Iseo. ...

Car numbering

Unlike modern day

rallying Rally is a wide-ranging form of motorsport with various competitive motoring elements such as speed tests (often called ''rally racing),'' navigation tests, or the ability to reach waypoints or a destination at a prescribed time or average speed. ...

, where cars are released with larger professional-class cars going before slower cars, in the Mille Miglia the smaller, slower, lower displacement cars started first. This made organisation simpler as marshals did not have to be on duty for as long a period and it minimised the period that roads had to be closed. From 1949, cars were assigned numbers according to their start time. For example, the 1955 Moss/Jenkinson car, #722, left Brescia at 07:22 (see below), while the first cars had started at 21:00 the previous day. In the early days of the race, even winners needed 16 hours or more, so most competitors had to start before midnight and arrived after dusk - if at all.

History

Before World War II

The race was established by the young Counts

Aymo Maggi Aymo Maggi (30 July 1903 – 23 October 1961) was an Italian racing car driver from Brescia. He was the ''conte di Gradella'' based in Pandino outside Cremona. Maggi started automobile racing in 1922 and had his first important victory in his hom ...

and

Franco Mazzotti Franco may refer to: Name * Franco (name) * Francisco Franco (1892–1975), Spanish general and dictator of Spain from 1939 to 1975 * Franco Luambo (1938–1989), Congolese musician, the "Grand Maître" Prefix * Franco, a prefix used when ref ...

, sports manager

Renzo Castagneto Renzo, the diminutive of Lorenzo, is an Italian masculine given name and a surname. Given name Notable people named Renzo include the following: * Renzo Alverà (1933–2005), Italian bobsledder *Renzo Arbore (born 1937), Italian TV host, sho ...

and motoring journalist Giovanni Canestrini, apparently in response to the

Italian Grand Prix The Italian Grand Prix ( it, Gran Premio d'Italia) is the fifth oldest national Grand Prix motor racing, Grand Prix (after the French Grand Prix, the United States Grand Prix, the Spanish Grand Prix and the Russian Grand Prix), having been he ...

being moved from their home town of

Monza Monza (, ; lmo, label=Lombard language, Lombard, Monça, locally ; lat, Modoetia) is a city and ''comune'' on the River Lambro, a tributary of the Po River, Po in the Lombardy region of Italy, about north-northeast of Milan. It is the capit ...

. Together with a group of wealthy associates, they chose a race from Brescia to

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

and back, a figure-eight shaped course of roughly 1500 km — or a thousand

Roman mile The mile, sometimes the international mile or statute mile to distinguish it from other miles, is a British imperial unit and United States customary unit of distance; both are based on the older English unit of length equal to 5,280 Engli ...

s. Later races followed twelve other routes of varying total lengths. The first race started on 26 March 1927 with seventy-seven starters — all Italian — of which fifty-one had reached the finishing post at Brescia by the end of the race. The first Mille Miglia covered 1,618 km, corresponding to just over 1,005 modern miles. Entry was strictly restricted to unmodified production cars, and the entrance fee was set at a nominal 1 lira. The winner, Giuseppe Morandi, completed the course in just under 21 hours 5 minutes, averaging nearly 78 km/h (48 mph) in his 2-litre OM; Brescia based OM swept the top three places.

Tazio Nuvolari Tazio Giorgio Nuvolari (; 16 November 1892 – 11 August 1953) was an Italian racing driver. He first raced motorcycles and then concentrated on sports cars and single-seaters. A resident of Mantua, he was known as 'Il Mantovano Volante' ( ...

won the 1930 Mille Miglia in an Alfa Romeo 6C. Having started after his teammate and rival

Achille Varzi Achille Varzi (8 August 1904 – 1 July 1948) was an Italian Grand Prix driver. Career Born in Galliate, province of Novara (Piedmont), Achille Varzi was the son of a textile manufacturer. As a young man, he was a successful motorcycle ra ...

, Nuvolari was leading the race but was still behind Varzi (holder of provisional second position) on the road. In the dim half-light of early dawn, Nuvolari tailed Varzi with his headlights off, thereby not being visible in the latter's rear-view mirrors. He then overtook Varzi on the straight roads approaching the finish at Brescia, by pulling alongside and flicking his headlights on. The event was usually dominated by local Italian drivers and marques, but three races were won by foreign cars. The first one was in 1931, when German driver

Rudolf Caracciola Otto Wilhelm Rudolf CaracciolaBolsinger and Becker (2002), p. 63 (30 January 1901 – 28 September 1959) was a racing driver from Remagen, Germany. He won the European Drivers' Championship, the pre-1950 equivalent of the modern Formula One Wor ...

(famous in

Grand Prix Grand Prix ( , meaning ''Grand Prize''; plural Grands Prix), is a name sometimes used for competitions or sport events, alluding to the winner receiving a prize, trophy or honour Grand Prix or grand prix may refer to: Arts and entertainment ...

racing) and

riding mechanic A riding mechanic was a mechanic that rode along with a race car during races, and who was tasked with maintaining, monitoring, and repairing the car during the race. The various duties included manually pumping oil and fuel, checking tire wear, ...

Wilhelm Sebastian won with their big supercharged Mercedes-Benz SSKL, averaging for the first time more than 100 km/h (63 mph) in a Mille Miglia. Caracciola had received very little support from the factory due to the economic crisis at that time. He did not have enough mechanics to man all necessary service points. After performing a pit stop, they had to hurry across Italy, cutting the triangle-shaped course short in order to arrive in time before the race car. The race was briefly stopped by Italian leader

Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in 194 ...

after an accident in 1938 killed a number of spectators. When it resumed in April 1940 shortly before Italy entered World War II, it was dubbed the Grand Prix of Brescia, and held on a short course in the plains of northern Italy that was lapped nine times. This event saw the debut of the first

Enzo Ferrari Enzo Anselmo Giuseppe Maria Ferrari (; 20 February 1898 – 14 August 1988) was an Italians, Italian motor racing driver and entrepreneur, the founder of the Scuderia Ferrari Grand Prix motor racing team, and subsequently of the Ferrari ...

-owned marque AAC (Auto Avio Costruzioni) (with the Tipo 815). Despite being populated (due to the circumstances even more than usual) mainly by Italian makers, it was the aerodynamically improved BMW 328 driven by Germans

Huschke von Hanstein Fritz Sittig Enno Werner von Hanstein (3 January 1911 – 5 March 1996) nicknamed "Huschke von Hanstein", was a German racing driver who from the 1950s served both as Porsche's public relations manager and chief of their racing department. ...

Walter Bäumer Walter may refer to: People * Walter (name), both a surname and a given name * Little Walter, American blues harmonica player Marion Walter Jacobs (1930–1968) * Gunther (wrestler), Austrian professional wrestler and trainer Walter Hahn (born 19 ...

that won the high-speed race with an all-time high average of .

After World War II

The Italians continued to dominate their race after the war, now again on a single big lap through Italy. Mercedes made another good effort in 1952 with the underpowered

Mercedes-Benz 300 SL The Mercedes-Benz 300 SL (chassis code W 198) is a two-seat sports car which was produced by Mercedes-Benz as a gullwinged coupe (1954–1957) and roadster (1957–1963).Werner Oswald: ''Mercedes-Benz Personenwagen 1945–1985''. Motorbuch Ve ...

''Gullwing'', scoring second with the German crew

Karl Kling Karl Kling (; 16 September 1910, Gießen – 18 March 2003, Gaienhofen on Lake Constance, Germany) was a motor racing driver and manager from Germany. He participated in 11 Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on 4 July 1954. He achieved 2 podiums - ...

Hans Klenk Hans Klenk (28 October 1919, in Künzelsau – 24 March 2009, in Vellberg) was a racing driver Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. A ...

that later in the year would win the

. Caracciola, in a comeback attempt, was fourth. Few other non-Italians managed podium finishes in the 1950s, among them Juan Manuel Fangio, Peter Collins and

Wolfgang von Trips Wolfgang Alexander Albert Eduard Maximilian Reichsgraf Berghe von Trips (; 4 May 1928 – 10 September 1961), also known simply as Wolfgang Graf Berghe von Trips and nicknamed 'Taffy' by friends and fellow racers, was a German racing driver. He ...

Stirling Moss at the Mille Miglia

In 1955, Mercedes made another attempt at winning the MM, this time with careful preparation and a more powerful car, the

Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR The Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR (W 196 S) was a 2-seat sports racing car that took part in the 1955 World Sportscar Championship before a catastrophic crash and fire at Le Mans later that year ended its domination prematurely. The car ...

which was based on the Formula One car (

Mercedes-Benz W196 The Mercedes-Benz W196 was a Formula One racing car produced by Mercedes-Benz for the and F1 seasons. Successor to the W194, in the hands of Juan Manuel Fangio and Stirling Moss it won 9 of 12 races entered and captured the only two world ...

), entirely different from their sports cars carrying the 300 SL name. Both young German

Hans Herrmann Hans Herrmann (born 23 February 1928) is a retired Formula One and sports car racing driver from Stuttgart, Germany. In F1, he participated in 19 World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 2 August 1953. He achieved 1 podium, and scored a ...

(who had had remarkable previous efforts with

) and Briton

Stirling Moss Sir Stirling Craufurd Moss (17 September 1929 – 12 April 2020) was a British Formula One racing driver. An inductee into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame, he won 212 of the 529 races he entered across several categories of comp ...

relied on the support of navigators while Juan Manuel Fangio (car #658) preferred to drive alone as usual, as he considered open road races dangerous after his co-pilot and friend was killed during a race across South America. Karl Kling also drove alone, in the fourth Mercedes, #701. Similar to his teammates, Moss and his navigator, motor race journalist

Denis Jenkinson Denis Sargent Jenkinson (11 December 1920 – 29 November 1996), "Jenks" or "DSJ" as he was known in the pages of ''Motor Sport'', was a British journalist deeply involved in motorsports. As Continental Correspondent of the UK-based ''Motor Spo ...

, ran a total of six reconnaissance laps beforehand, enabling "Jenks" to make course notes (pace notes) on a scroll of paper 18 ft (540 cm) long that he read from and gave directions to Moss during the race by a coded system of 15 hand signals. Although this undoubtedly helped them, Moss's innate ability and the 300 SLR’s exceptional build quality were clearly the predominant factors. Moss was competing against drivers with a large amount of local knowledge of the route, so the reconnaissance laps were considered an equaliser, rather than an advantage. Car #704 with

and Hermann Eger was said to be fastest in the early stages, though. Herrmann had already had a remarkable race in 1954, when the gate on a railroad crossing was lowered in the last moment before the fast train to Rome passed. Driving a very low

Porsche 550 The Porsche 550 is a racing sports car produced by Porsche from 1953 until 1956. In that time only 90 Porsche 550s were produced, and they quickly established dominance in the 1.1- and 1.5- liter classes. The Porsche 550 is a mid-engine car with ...

Spyder, Herrmann decided it was too late for a brake attempt anyway, knocked on the back of the helmet of his navigator

Herbert Linge Herbert Linge (born 11 June 1928, in Weissach) is a German former racing and rally driver. As an employee of Porsche, he was involved in many events, and later also in motorsport safety. He took part in many 24 Hours of Le Mans races in the 1960 ...

to make him duck, and they barely passed below the gates and before the train, to the surprise of the spectators. Herrmann was less lucky in 1955, having to abandon the race after a brake failure on the Futa Pass between Florence and Bologna, while Kling crashed just outside Rome. After 10 hours, 7 minutes and 48 seconds, Moss/Jenkinson arrived in Brescia in their

with the now famous #722, setting the event record at an average of which was fastest ever on this variant of the course, not to be beaten in the remaining two years. Fangio arrived a few minutes later in the #658 car, but having started 24 min earlier, it actually took him about 30 minutes longer, having engine problems at Pescara, through Rome and by the time Fangio reached Florence, a fuel injection pipe had broken and he was running on 7 cylinders.

The end

The race was forever banned after two fatal crashes in the 1957 race. The first was the crash of a 4.0-litre

Ferrari 335 S The Ferrari 335 S was a sports racing car produced by Italian manufacturer Ferrari in 1957. The car was a direct response to the Maserati 450S which with its 4.5-litre engine was threatening to overpower the 3.8-litre 315 S and 3.5-litre 290 M ...

that took the lives of the Spanish driver

Alfonso de Portago Alfonso Cabeza de Vaca y Leighton, 11th Marquess of Portago, GE (11 October 1928 – 12 May 1957), best known as Alfonso de Portago, was a Spanish aristocrat, racing and bobsleigh driver, jockey and pilot. Born in London to a prominent family ...

, his co-driver/navigator Edmund Nelson, and nine spectators, at the village of

Guidizzolo Guidizzolo ( Upper Mantovano: ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Mantua in the Italian region Lombardy, located about east of Milan and about northwest of Mantua. The bordering municipalities of Guidizzolo are Cavriana, Ceresara, ...

. Five of the spectators killed were children, all of whom were standing along the race course. Portago, already unsettled by doing a race he felt was too dangerous, waited too long to make a tyre change. The crash was caused by a worn tyre. The manufacturer was sued for this, as was the Ferrari team. The second car crash, in

, took the life of Joseph Göttgens. He was driving a

Triumph TR3 The Triumph TR3 is a British sports car produced between 1955 and 1962 by the Standard-Triumph Motor Company of Coventry, England. A traditional roadster, the TR3 is an evolution of the company's earlier TR2 model, with greater power and im ...

. From 1958 to 1961, the event resumed as a

-like round trip at legal speeds with a few special stages driven at full speed, but this was discontinued also. From 1927 to 1957, the race took the lives of a total of 56 people.

Mille Miglia winners

Mille Miglia Storica

Since 1977, the race was revived as the ''Mille Miglia Storica'', a parade for pre-1957 cars that takes several days, which also spawned the 2007 documentary film '' Mille Miglia – The Spirit of a Legend''. Mika Häkkinen 1

Mille Miglia Storica winners

* 1977: Hepp / Bauer –

Alfa Romeo RL The Alfa Romeo RL was produced between 1922–1927. It was Alfa's first sport model after World War I. The car was designed in 1921 by Giuseppe Merosi. It had a straight-6 engine with overhead valves. Three different versions were made: Normale, ...

Super Sport – 1927 * 1982: Bacchi / Montanari – O.S.C.A MT 4 – 1956 * 1984: Palazzani / Campana –

Stanguellini Automobili Stanguellini was an Italian maker of small sports cars, based in Modena and founded by Vittorio Stanguellini; it was most active between 1946 and 1960. They continued to produce competition cars until 1981, when Vittorio Stanguellini ...

1100 S – 1947 * 1986: Schildbach / Netzer –

Mercedes-Benz SSK The Mercedes-Benz SSK (W06) is a roadster built by German automobile manufacturer Mercedes-Benz between 1928 and 1932. The name is an abbreviation of ''Super Sport Kurz'', German for "Super Sport Short", as it was a short wheelbase development o ...

– 1929 * 1987: Nannini / Marin – Maserati 200 SI – 1957 * 1988: Rollino / Gaslini – Fiat 1100 S MM – 1948 * 1989: Valseriati / Favero –

– 1955 * 1990: Agnelli / Cavallari –

Cisitalia 202 Cisitalia was an Italian sports and racing car brand. The name "Cisitalia" derives from "Compagnia Industriale Sportiva Italia", a business conglomerate founded in Turin in 1946 and controlled by the wealthy industrialist and sportsman Piero Dusio ...

SC – 1950 * 1991: Panizza / Pisanelli – Renault 750 Sport – 1954 * 1992: Giuliano Canè / Lucia Galliani –

BMW 507 The BMW 507 is a roadster that was produced by BMW from 1956 until 1959. Initially intended to be exported to the United States at a rate of thousands per year, it ended up being too expensive, resulting in a total production figure of 252 cars ...

– 1957 * 1993: Vesco / Bocelli –

SC – 1948 * 1994: Giuliano Canè / Lucia Galliani – Lancia Aurelia B 20 – 1957 * 1995: Ferrari / Salza – Abarth 750 Zagato – 1957 * 1996: Giuliano Canè / Lucia Galliani – BMW 328 MM – 1937 * 1997: Valseriati / Sabbadini –

– 1952 * 1998: Giuliano Canè / Lucia Galliani – BMW 328 MM – 1937 * 1999: Giuliano Canè / Auteri –

Ferrari 340 MM :''See also the 340 F1, a Formula One racer, and 340 America, a GT car'' The Ferrari 340 Mexico was a Ferrari sports racing car which was intended for the 1952 Carrera Panamericana. It used 4.1 L '' Lampredi'' V12 engine producing around at 6 ...

– 1953 * 2000: Giuliano Canè / Lucia Galliani – BMW 328 MM – 1937 * 2001: Sisti / Bernini – Healey Silverstone – 1950 * 2002: Giuliano Canè / Lucia Galliani – BMW 328 Touring – 1940 * 2003: Sielecki / Hervas –

Bugatti Automobiles Ettore Bugatti was a German then French manufacturer of high-performance automobiles. The company was founded in 1909 in the then-German city of Molsheim, Alsace, by the Italian-born industrial designer Ettore Bugatti. The cars w ...

T 23 Brescia – 1923 * 2004: Giuliano Canè / Lucia Galliani – BMW 328 MM Coupé – 1939 * 2005: Viaro / De Marco – Alfa Romeo 6C 1500 S – 1928 * 2006: Giuliano Canè / Lucia Galliani – BMW 328 MM Coupé – 1939 * 2007: Viaro / Bergamaschi – Alfa Romeo 6C 1500 Super Sport – 1928 * 2008: Luciano and Antonio Viaro – Alfa Romeo 6C 1500 Super Sport – 1928 * 2009: Ferrari / Ferrari –

Bugatti Type 37 The Bugatti Type 35 was the most successful of the Bugatti racing models. Its version of the Bugatti arch-shaped radiator that had evolved from the more architectural one of the Bugatti Type 13 Brescia, was to become the one that the marque is ...

– 1927 * 2010: Giuliano Canè / Lucia Galliani – BMW 328 MM Coupé – 1939 * 2011: Giordano Mozzi / Stefania Biacca – Aston Martin Le Mans -1933 * 2012: Scalise Claudio / Claramunt Daniel – Alfa Romeo 6C 1500 Gran Sport "Testa Fissa" – 1933 * 2013: Juan Tonconogy / Guillermo Berisso – Bugatti T40 – 1927 * 2014: Giordano Mozzi / Stefania Biacca –

Lancia Lambda The Lancia Lambda is an innovative automobile produced from 1922 through 1931. It was the first car to feature a load-bearing unitary body, (but without a stressed roof) and it also pioneered the use of an independent suspension (the front slidi ...

tipo 221 spider Ca.Sa.Ro – 1928 * 2015: Juan Tonconogy / Guillermo Berisso – Bugatti T40 – 1927 * 2016: Andrea Vesco / Andrea Guerini – Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 Gran Sport Spider Zagato – 1931 * 2017: Andrea Vesco / Andrea Guerini – Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 Gran Sport Spider Zagato – 1931 * 2018: Juan Tonconogy / Barbara Ruffini – Alfa Romeo 6C 1500 Gran Sport "Testa Fissa" Spider Zagato – 1933 * 2019: Giovanni Moceri / Daniele Bonetti – Alfa Romeo 6C 1500 Super Sport Spider Stabilimenti Farina – 1928 * 2020: Andrea Vesco / Roberto Vesco - Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 Gran Sport Spider Zagato – 1929 * 2021: Andrea Vesco / Fabio Salvinelli - Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 Gran Sport Spider Zagato – 1929 * 2022: Andrea Vesco / Fabio Salvinelli - Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 Gran Sport Spider Zagato – 1929

Gallery

File:O.M. 665 SUPERBA SS MM 2200 CC 1929 (26714994174).jpg, Passage through

Siena Siena ( , ; lat, Sena Iulia) is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena. The city is historically linked to commercial and banking activities, having been a major banking center until the 13th and 14th centuri ...

File:2019 05 18 Casa Mille Miglia 2019-16 (40908099383).jpg, Passage through

Emilia-Romagna egl, Emigliàn (man) egl, Emiglièna (woman) rgn, Rumagnòl (man) rgn, Rumagnòla (woman) it, Emiliano (man) it, Emiliana (woman) or it, Romagnolo (man) it, Romagnola (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title ...

region File:2019 Mille Miglia, a Lancia Lambda.jpg,

at the 2019 edition Mille Miglia 2020 partenza N 8 e 9 in Viale Venezia a Brescia.jpg, The 2020 edition of Mille Miglia Storica was postponed until autumn due to

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

Mille Miglia Museum

Since November 2004, the former Monastery of Sant'Eufemia in

houses the ''Mille Miglia Museum'', which illustrates the history of this car race with films, memorabilia, dresses, posters, and a number of classic cars that are periodically replaced by other in case of participation in events.

Name usage

Owner of the trademark logo of Mille Miglia is th
Automobile Club Brescia
Mille Miglia is also the name of

Alitalia Alitalia - Società Aerea Italiana Società per azioni, S.p.A., operating as Alitalia (), was an Italian airline which was once the flag carrier and largest airline of Italy. The company had its head office in Fiumicino, Metropolitan City of ...

's frequent flyer program. Mille Miglia is also the name of a jacket, named after the race, inspired by the 1920s racewear and designed by

Massimo Osti Massimo Osti (1944–2005) was an Italian garment engineer and fashion designer, most famous as the founder of the apparel brands Stone Island and C.P. Company. Osti's products were a mix of his own innovations and design ideas he got from study ...

for his CP Company clothing label. The garment features goggles built into the hood and originally had a small circular window in the sleeve enabling the wearer to see their watch. The jackets have been produced for a long period and are still popular with

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

casuals. As a sponsor and timekeeper of the Storica event, the event has lent its name and its trademark logo to

Chopard Le Petit-Fils de L.-U. Chopard & Cie S.A., commonly known as Chopard, is a Swiss manufacturer and retailer of luxury watches, jewellery and accessories. Founded in 1860 by Louis-Ulysse Chopard in Sonvilier, Switzerland, Chopard has been owned by ...

for a series of sports watches. For promotions, Chopard uses photographs from the event by photographer Giacomo Bretzel. Mille Miglia Red is the name for a colour used by Chevrolet on its Corvette models. The colour was offered between 1972 and 1975. In 1982 the Mille Miglia endurance race was revived as a road rally event. "Mille Miglia" is also the title of a song from

Lucio Dalla Lucio Dalla (; 4 March 1943 – 1 March 2012) was an Italian singer-songwriter, musician and actor. He also played clarinet and keyboards. Dalla was the composer of " Caruso" (1986), a song dedicated to Italian opera tenor Enrico Caruso, and ...

's album ''

Automobili ''Automobili'' is an album by Italian singer-songwriter Lucio Dalla, released in 1976 by RCA Italiana. It was the last work in collaboration with poet Roberto Roversi: the following LP, '' Com'è profondo il mare'', was entirely (not only the mu ...

'' (1976). The song describes anecdotes about the 1947 edition of the race.

Kaneko , stylized as KANEJapanese

SCi Games SCi Entertainment Group plc (formerly The Sales Curve Limited and SCi (Sales Curve Interactive) Limited) was a British video game publisher based in London. The company was founded in 1988 by Jane Cavanagh and floated on the stock exchange in 1 ...

released a

PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a divisi ...

game simply named ''Mille Miglia'' and endorsed by

in 2000 in PAL regions. In 2008, Alfa Romeo created a limited edition version of its Tipo 939 Spider called the "Mille Miglia". Only 11 cars were built - 8 left-hand drive and 3 right-hand driver - with each numbered car corresponding to one of the marque's Mille Miglia victories. Each car carried a small metal plate with details of the race.

References

External links

* http://www.1000miglia.eu/
Mille Miglia Museum, Brescia

Mille Miglia Today
{{Authority control Recurring sporting events established in 1927 Recurring events disestablished in 1957 Historic motorsport events 1927 establishments in Italy 1957 disestablishments in Italy